Six Found Shot to Death on Ohio Farm

Six people, including three teenagers, were found shot to death Sunday morning in neighboring farmhouses, and investigators thought one of the dead was responsible for the slayings, a sheriff’s officer said.

The same family owned both houses on a farm of several hundred acres, authorities said. Two bodies were found in one farmhouse and four were found in the other.

Authorities said the shootings probably occurred between 6 and 10 a.m. at the farm west of Bellefontaine, a town of 13,000 people about 45 miles northwest of Columbus.

“I’ve being doing this for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Logan County Sheriff’s Lt. Chuck Stout said.

Sheriff Michael Henry identified the dead as Paige Harshbarger, 14; Scott Moody, 18; Megan Karus, 19; Sheri Schafer, 37; Sharyl Schafer, 66; and Gary Schafer, 67.

Sharyl and Gary Schafer were found in one farmhouse, and the others were found in a second house about a quarter-mile away, Henry said.

The sheriff would not provide details about the relationships among the victims.

A seventh person, Stacy Moody, 15, was shot in the neck. After being injured, she called a friend, who alerted authorities. Moody was flown to Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus. The sheriff said he did not know her condition.

Investigators found several guns at the scene, Henry said, including a rifle inside the house where four bodies were discovered. He would not say whether the rifle was the weapon used in the shootings.

Officers had received 10 nuisance calls concerning the house, although the sheriff would not provide details of the complaints.